in Birmingham, England to further upgrade their skills in the build-up to international competition for Bermuda's junior and senior teams.

Bermuda Cricket Board of Control are funding the trip of national coach Allan Douglas along with Wendell Smith and Winston Reid who will attend the National Cricket Association's Rover World Cricket Coaches Conference at the NEC Arena in Birmingham.

The conference will involve several areas of the game: schools and club cricket, sports psychology, mental toughness, wicketkeeping, fielding, `batting against fast men', spin bowling, `philosophies and practices of cricket coaches', and `coaching the quicks'.

Some of the presenters include South Africa coach Bob Woolmer (on philosophies and practices of coaches), and current South Africa players Jonte Rhodes, and Allan Donald who will share their knowledge of fielding and fast bowling.

Former West Indies batsman Desmond Haynes will give a presentation on batting against the fast men, Richard Hadlee on coaching fast bowling, Terry Jenner on spin bowling, Dr Steve Bull on sports psychology and Bob Taylor on wicketkeeping.

David Leighton will make a presentation on schools and club cricket while new coaching aids will also be discussed.

"I'm looking to bring information back and share it with physical educators during staff development,'' said school principal Wendell Smith who is particularly interested in cricket in the schools and clubs.

"Improving the standard of cricket in the schools is something that people have long talked about.'' Invitations will soon go out to players to join the senior and junior squads for summer competition. The senior squad will travel to Toronto, Canada to compete in a tournament there from August 5-12 against Canada and possibly the United States while the junior squad will be involved in a similar tournament against Canada here on August 12-19.